White Day Tribute
by 321noeoen123
Summary: A ShinKumi White Day Tribute. As per Ooedo Ikka tradition, Yankumi has to give Shin a return gift of chocolate this time. Enjoy!


**I know it's been a long time, but a couple of you guys sent me reviews with a lot of motivational comments. So, I'm back! **** Hope it's worth your time!**

He always had her back. Whenever there was a student to save, a fight to be fought or a yakuza meeting to go to she didn't want the school to find out about, 3D's Sawada Shin could always be counted on to help. And, so it would seem, the latest development had been to sustain her candy-addiction while still, as ever, looking out for her. He'd given her a box filled with 29 smaller boxes with chocolates in them, to last her from Valentine's Day all the way to White Day. As it was tradition in the Ooedo clan, the men gave chocolates to their _ojou_ on that holiday dedicated to love and got chocolate in return exactly a month later. The reason for his was to keep the more amorous suitors from being able to go full-out and perhaps shock their precious princess into accepting. Last Valentine's, Sawada had appealed to Yamaguchi – he only called her Yankumi when there were other students around, trying to unconsciously separate himself from the other students in her eyes – for help in escaping his fan club and she had obliged by allowing him to spend the day with her and her family. As a joke and meant merely to unsettle him, she'd challenged him to make her chocolates as was the house custom, but no-one had been more surprised than her – had been surprised at all, really – when he'd actually gone and done it. She was actually quite curious as to when he'd found the time for it, with her coming over every so often to check up on him and with him sleeping most of the time she came upon him in school. But he'd done it and quite well at that. It took her a great deal of self-control not to rip open all the boxes at once, to find out what they hid, but she managed it in the end. Shinohara-sensei, who'd stopped by very late that Valentine's evening for a meeting with her grandfather when she'd already gone to bed, had left some chocolate strawberries for her which she'd eaten all in the morning, but Shin's warning about overindulging kept her from doing the same with his chocolates. Now, every morning at breakfast, she opened one of the boxes while trying to guess what symbol this one would be. So far, she hadn't been correct even once, a feat in and of itself, but she enjoyed her silly guessing game nonetheless.

0o0

She'd taken to drawing the chocolate symbol of the day in a small corner on the blackboard in her homeroom class as a wink at Sawada. He didn't deem it worthy enough to comment on – it took some significance for him to bring something up verbally – but when he stayed over for dinner sometime that next week, she saw him smirk when his eyes fell on the opened boxes in his present. She'd conveniently left it lying out in the open to see his reaction to it, but other than that small expression of amusement he stayed as cool as ever and merely gave her a single nod in acknowledgement. This was part of their usual interaction, with her trying to get him to show more emotions – she berated him often enough for having 'a face she had a hard time reading' – and with him trying to keep his cool at all costs. This was harder for him at her home, where he felt quite at home himself and so was more inclined to open up and actually produce a smile openly if he felt happy. But, because of their game, every time he laughed out loud it led to him closing up even more in school in compensation, which led to her renewed efforts, which completed their interaction circle. That day, she counted five smirks, four smiles and one full blown laugh at one of her own jokes, that month's personal record and she went to bed quite satisfied with herself. Let her see him try and beat that come morning!

0o0

A second week passed and now Yamaguchi Kumiko, yakuza heiress, fierce in every fight to protect her students or her aging grandfather's interests when needed, a woman usually a tad clueless but always ready for a challenge, felt herself growing just a tiny bit afraid. White Day was only two short weeks away now, at which point she'd be expected to return chocolates to her male friends who'd gifted her some chocolate last Valentine's day. Her _kumi_ knew her and what to – not – expect, but she was honor bound to give Sawada a return gift as well. He'd been made aware of the none-existence of her cooking skills when at one point, while staying over for dinner at his place at one point while going over some battle plan or whatnot - she had actually managed to burn the water for their ramen and baking gave her no less difficulty. But she still wanted to give him something homemade and not store-bought, because he'd so obviously put in an effort for her as well. This meant, however, producing something that was not only _not_ poisonous, but actually _edible_ as well. So today she was going to come up with a foolproof plan, she'd decided, which would make even _her_ succeed in producing chocolates which were, if not pretty, then at least suitable for consumption.

0o0

After third period, she had lunch with her fellow teachers and then set off to find Sawada Shin. It could still be a tad chilly this time of year, but the brave sun had fought its way through the clouds to warm up the world, so her student's usual spot on the rooftop was still her best bet. She found him there, not laying on a bench this time, but sitting against the wall, out of the wind. She joined him there and soon relaxed in the tranquility of the moment – after, of course, a few cursory reminders not to skip class too often and to show up on time. He made no answer, which she'd expected and she chose to interpret the dipping of his head as a sort of acknowledgement instead of it having merely dropped further down because he was asleep. It was rare for her to come upon him like this. Usually she stormed up the stairs to summon him (back) to class loudly enough that she knew him to be awake when she reached the roof, but today she'd taken care to be quiet. It had paid off, for now she had the rare chance to observe him unnoticed.

He smelled of mandarins. The small breeze that made it past the wall filled her nose with the scent of him. Mandarins, laundry detergent and something more. Something so uniquely him that she hadn't come up with a way to explain it, even to herself, other than as 'Shin', even though she often berated herself for thinking of him, a student, so familiarly. She conveniently glossed over the fact that his given name tended to slip out unnoticed when she talked about him to her kumi, or when she was so hyped up about something she forgot about social conventions. Hmm, mandarins. She suddenly felt like some, which gave her an idea. Chocolate covered mandarins, maybe with a little bit of hot sauce added to the mix because she knew he liked his food spicy. It could be done, she hoped, easily enough that even she would be able to manage it, now that she wouldn't have to artfully decorate designer-level chocolates. And, since she learned about melting chocolate _au bain marie_ two years ago, her rate of burning chocolate had decreased significantly. Yep, mandarins it was, she decided, relaxing back against the wall.

Shin, who'd woken up during her perusal of him – especially when she leaned in to get what seemed like a good whiff of his hair – also relaxed an inch more down in his already slumped posture. While he could usually tell what she was thinking – however silly – by merely looking at her, he'd had an… amorous… dream last night and felt it better that they not make eye-contact at close range in so intimate a setting as this, lest he give her even more ammunition to torture him with. With this he referred to the unbecoming blush that sometimes threatened to pop up, like when her jersey had shrunk in the wash, leaving him with a better look than normal at her backside whenever she wrote on the blackboard, or like when she'd dressed up as a high school girl during the hunt for Fujiyama-sensei's stalker, or like when… best stop those thoughts, he reminded himself, or he'd be having _dreams_ for the rest of the week. He, too, hat noticed White Day drawing near and the thought of her homemade chocolates made his heart race with both excitement and dread. Then, there was that heart in the last box for her to open. He'd put it in mostly on a whim, telling himself he could very easily convince her that it was just another common gesture, but part of him wanted to refrain from that. That part also wanted him to tell her how she'd grown on him over the last year, how she'd wormed herself so deeply into his heart that he was sure he could never let her go anymore. That his budding interest in psychology from years past had solidified into a fierce determination to outdo all the efforts that lawyer – Shinohara-sensei, the one she kept fawning over – had put into the _kumi_. But he knew her and he knew her well. As such, he was sure her mind would never be able to accept a love-declaration from a _student_ and so he waited, as patiently as he could manage, for this one long year to pass, dropping small, tiny hints he knew she'd never pick up anyway, but never openly declaring his intentions or feelings – on a level that she would understand, anyway.

Anyone with eyes to see – and with access not only to the school but to the Ooedo household as well – had long since noted his budding attraction and showed signs of at least not finding it distasteful (Kuroda himself), teased him quite mercilessly (Kyou-san), acknowledged him as a proper contender for their _ojou_ (Wakamatsu-san) or silently supported him (Tetsu and Minoru, after a few obligatory yet no less menacing warnings about what should happen to him if he should hurt her). Even Karasu, the small black kitten she'd acquired not long ago, had already approved of him and now climbed all over him whenever he came over. Shinohara-sensei, now there was a man difficult to gauge. He was friendly enough to everyone and didn't seem to dislike the attention Kumiko showered him with whenever he came to visit, but he also didn't make active advances on her – of which Shin was glad – but there was always this vibe whenever both the lawyer and the student stayed over for dinner. A vibe Shin had a hard time of reading accurately, which never failed to annoy him beyond even the general irritation raised by Yamaguchi's self-proclaimed love-interest staying over for dinner at the same time. It almost felt as though the lawyer was trying to run him off, but it seemed tempered by a feeling of genuine regard and something more, something holding the lawyer back both from openly threatening off rivals and acknowledging his true feelings towards Kumiko, which Shin felt the lawyer still hadn't acknowledged properly.

This thinking of Shinohara had adequately cooled him off enough to allow him to face her now, but when he opened his eyes and made to turn, he felt something solid land on his shoulder. Her head. She'd nodded off and had slowly been slipping in his direction, but because he'd been too lost in thoughts, he hadn't noticed in time. Now he was stuck. Not literally – he could easily shove her off if he wanted to – but metaphorically. He wanted this. This human contact, which was denied them through social customs – other than the occasional punch in the arm she gave him, but that was more painful than affectionate, even if it was meant as the latter. Sometimes she really didn't know her own strength…

What fine agony this was. To enjoy a few moments like this, always too short but infinitely long at the same time. Thankfully they were sitting against the same wall as the only door was placed in, so he'd be able to feel and hear if someone was coming up, but still he couldn't relax fully. He wanted to, though. He hadn't slept enough last night since waking up from that _dream_ at four AM and her body heat was soothing him in places he hadn't realized needed soothing. But, if he fell asleep as well, odds were – with their usual luck – that they'd be discovered by someone unfortunate, like the vice-principal. They technically weren't doing anything illegal, just highly improper for a student and a teacher. Not to mention that Yamaguchi herself would probably blame herself again and would want to restore the proper student-teacher boundaries, which wasn't something Shin wanted so close to White Day – or at all really. So, the cost was just too high and no matter how much he wanted to give in, he would stay awake, aware, and alert. But, for as long as it lasted, he would enjoy it, too.

When she finally woke up after about ten minutes, he told himself he didn't miss the feeling of her relaxing into him. But when that, coupled with the lack of sleep, was added to her having woken up because it had been _Shinohara-sensei_ calling her on her cell phone on _kumi_ business at which point she promptly walked out of his hearing distance, he felt himself get irritated. This lasted the rest of the day, which stirred the whole class into a bigger frenzy than normal instead of settling them down like he usually did, and Yankumi spent the rest of the day wondering why Sawada was in such a foul mood.

0o0

The rest of the week went by quietly, though Yankumi changed her idea for Shin's chocolates several times. But by the end of the week, with White Day only one week away, she decided not to change her mind _again_ but to just start making them. This left the kitchen in a constant state of disaster for the next few days, but by the end of them she had all the chocolates she would need ready.

0o0

On White Day, Shin didn't come to school. Ever since Yamaguchi had become his homeroom teacher he rarely skipped a full day anymore – she was just too interesting to be around – but today called for extra preparatory measure such as a heavy lie-in, spending more time on his hair and clothes than he wanted to admit. Then he spent some time reading some college textbooks because those in high school were just too boring by now. Though, he had to admit, he rather enjoyed the extra difficult and finicky questions Yamaguchi now regularly added to his tests. Thinking back to the last test he was again amused by how well her little ploys sometimes paid off in a class so dumb as his. The last test had been the students who got a failing grade realize they needed to study at least a bit harder if they couldn't pass a test which was rumoured to have been dumbed down to their level, and the students who had passed the test had gained some confidence which had made them – however slightly – more inclined to play attention in the next few classes at least. He then passed the rest of the day trying to read, but spending more than half of the time wondering about what kind of chocolate she'd give him that evening, if that lawyer was going to show up again and about what Yamaguchi's thoughts had been upon opening the last box that morning, the one that had the second heart in it.

0o0

Yankumi had all but forgotten that her now daily open-the-chocolate-box-ritual had stemmed from the holiday meant for love, but when she opened that last box on White Day morning – with a slight feeling of regret that the game was over now – she was acutely reminded of it again when she saw a small yet nicely decorated heart inside. Her thoughts shot to Shin and wondered but for a moment whether… But no, surely not! She couldn't imagine one of her precious students actually having a crush on her and while she joked about it every so often in class, every student to have received such a question from her had responded with disgust and outrage at the mere suggestion of it. So no, definitely not. To escape her own confusion and mixed feelings at that conclusion, she stuffed the heart-shaped chocolate in her mouth and chomped down on it repeatedly with her molars. There, that ought to keep her from thinking about it! As an extra precautionary measure to show she _hadn't_ been affected, she drew the heart on the blackboard as had become the standard, but Shin wasn't there to notice – a rarity these days – and she felt oddly bereft without his solid and steady presence there to support her. This, however, led to a renewed effort to show herself that she didn't _need_ him to be around to deal with her class, which led to the class wondering why she was so excited, which led to more excitement from them, which led to an eventful day which kept her properly busy so she wouldn't have to think about certain things again until later that evening.

0o0

At 7:30 PM, everyone was seated at the dinner table. Kuroda Ryuuichiro himself at the head along with his granddaughter, the henchmen Tetsu and Minoru on their left near the kitchen, the underbosses Wakamatsu and Kyou opposite them and Shinohara and Shin on their right. The latter was trying his best not to show irritation at the fact that Shinohara had been placed between him and Yamaguchi, but as he knew the lawyer had longer and stronger ties – as of yet – than him to the _kumi_, he wasn't in a position to complain. Nor would he ever voice this displeasure out loud, but it bugged him nonetheless. But Karasu, Kumiko's small black kitten, had discovered that he was in the house, and had made his pleasure known by climbing all over him, trying to steal food from his plate, batting at his red hair and generally being adorable all around, which soon made Shin forget about former annoyances and enjoy the evening.

Dinner was a quiet affair at first, mostly because at first Kumiko was so nervous by now that she didn't realise they were 'talking shop' in front of her student. She was wondering whether Shin…ohara-sensei would like her chocolates, and whether Sawada would as well. About whether she'd have to explain her choice of additions, because she really didn't want to say out loud that she liked Sawada smelling of mandarins – let alone how she'd chosen hot peppers to set off the sweet taste of them. Because, ignorant though she knew herself to be about romantic issues, she knew well enough the sort of things that inspired all sorts of racy comments in her _kumi_-members. And putting the words 'Shin' and 'hot' together in one sentence was bound to spark all sorts of unwanted commentary, especially in front of Shinohara-sensei! Thankfully she'd not put anything in his chocolates that could be remotely misconstrued. Just grated oranges – she'd been in a citrus-y mood and those seemed to fit him well enough, as he always ate some for lunch if they were available. She relaxed a bit at the thought that everything was as ready as it was going to be. Shinohara-sensei's choice had been remarkably quickly made, she though back. Not like Sawada's, which she'd spent quite a few days worrying about if they'd been the correct choice. But in the end, she'd decided not to change the idea _again_ but to just make them, which had proven to be hard enough as it was. Luckily everything had gone well so far with making the chocolates, but how would they react? Would they like it? And just like that, she was back to worrying again.

It wasn't until Shinohara-sensei drew her back into the conversation by asking her opinion on the current topic, that she realised just exactly _what_ they'd been discussing – the apparent intrusion of the Nekomata-kumi on the Michodori-kumi's turf and whether Kuroda was expected to step in – and she soon put an end to it with a few well-placed glares and a pointed question towards Sawada about 'if he was going to come to _school_ tomorrow'. Shin winced at this, but otherwise merely nodded politely at her and steered the whole of the group towards a safer path of conversation. He couldn't risk shooting a few calculating glances at Shinohara, though. Had the man purposefully wanted to draw attention to the fact that he, Shin, was still an outsider, or had he wanted to remind Kumiko and/or Shin himself of the student-teacher relationship they weren't supposed to exceed, or had it just been an honestly polite attempt at involving Kumiko in the conversation again? He couldn't read the lawyers face properly and he soon caught the other man's eye with his perusal, so he settled for a nod and decisively turned back to the conversation at hand.

0o0

When Tetsu and Minoru had cleaned up and had done the dishes, they all sat down at the table again with some sake or – in Shin's case – green tea. Another reminder of his age Shin didn't need, but he knew himself not to have a high alcohol tolerance – yet, because he hardly ever drank it – and he wanted to remember tonight fully, not merely in a drunken haze. Besides, there would be time enough for him to build up a tolerance during college, which he planned to do as soon as he was allowed to – and when he wouldn't have to face Yamaguchi in class with a hangover. That one time he'd been out with Kyou-san had provided him with plenty of incentive not to let her catch him drunk and/or hung-over ever again while he was still her student. Suffice to say that the next time Kyou-san had taken him out, he'd taken care to end up at his own home, rather than Yamaguchi's. But for now, green tea it was.

Yamaguchi had an impressive pile of wrapped packages lying next to her, of which the biggest part went to her grandfather. For him, she had tried to pour some chocolate into the suki (好き) kanji of affection, topped with the coconut sprinkles he liked so much. It hadn't gone too well, for the kanji were hardly distinguishable from one-another, let alone legible. On top of that, they stuck to the baking paper she'd poured it one, but after a small hint as to what it read, he thanked her so profusely she blushed for a full minute.

Next were Kyou and Wakamatsu. They both got chocolate stars – a bit easier to shape and thus more recognisable – with raisins in them. Tetsu and Minoru got chocolate faces with cherries for eyes and a drawn-in smile, which they immediately ate with glee – and they didn't even blink at the cherrystones still in them.

Then came Shinohara-sensei. She had aimed for the kanji for lawyer (_bengoshi_, 弁護士) but they had sort of melded together into one big bunch of chocolate-y blobs, with several spiking bits and rounded bits sticking out here and there. The lawyer was ever so polite about accepting his gift, however, and Kumiko rallied her spirits tolerably. Shin still noticed that she looked very put-out that this gift hadn't been received with as much honest affection as the former gifts had and at this moment he hated his own observation skills, for they brought him merely grief whenever around Shinohara-sensei.

He didn't have time to dwell on this, however, as his own chocolates were next. Karasu, tired after all his escapades during dinner, was a warm, steadying presence in his lap, but Shin still felt anxious as she handed him his gift. He unwrapped the green paper from the small box and opened it very carefully. From the box, three small rabbits were looking up at him. They had chocolate-covered mandarin slices for ears – you could still see the mandarin poking through here and there – with blobs of white chocolate meant to be faces andd pinpricks of dark chocolate meant to signify the eyes. She'd even gone so far as to inscribe the noses of the three heads with the kanji for his name – to more or less success. He was unwillingly touched that she had spent so much time doing something she was so bad at and coming out with something proper – sort of – to show for it, that he had a hard time concealing just how much he liked his gift. He shot her a grateful smile that was one part thankful, one part embarrassed, two parts intense longing just barely held back and five parts pure happiness. He placed them in front of him on the table with near reverence, then gave her as good a bow as he could from his seated position – Karasu giving a small meow of discontent at his sleeping spot moving around so much. Shin then took out the one with his first name on it and, checking to see she was watching him, ate it in one bite. It was… good! It wasn't just _not bad_, it was actually _good_! She'd put something spicy in the mix and the whole of it just blended into one perfect taste which lit up his face with an even bigger smile than before.

"That's really very good!" he exclaimed.

Her face flamed red at this effusive praise of one normally so held-back and she smiled in appreciation.

"You really think so?"

"Yes," he replied honestly, "even though I was ready for the worst, this actually tastes _very good_!"

"Oi," she exclaimed, reaching past behind Shinohara-sensei to punch him in the arm, "don't go spouting nonsense about being prepared for the worst!"

They bickered for a few minutes more, completely absorbed in their own interaction. They were blind to Kyou and Wakamatsu exchanging a meaningful glance, Tetsu and Minoru refilling everyone's cups and Kuroda and Shinohara starting up the conversation about the Nekomata and Michodori _kumi_ again.


End file.
